The Roman Calendar Home Calendar The Roman Calendar The Roman Calendar The ancient Roman calendar, or “pre-Julian” calendar, is believed to have been a lunar calendar. The calendar originally consisted of hollow months that were 29 days long or full months that had 30 days. The Colosseum in Rome. The Colosseum in Rome is one of the most famous ruins from the Roman era. ©iStockphoto.com/matthewleesdixon King Romulus The original Roman calendar was said to be invented by Romulus, the first king of Rome, around 753 BCE . The calendar started the year in March (Martius) and consisted of 10 months, with 6 months of 30 days and 4 months of 31 days. The winter season was not assigned to any month, so the calendar year only lasted 304 days with 61 days unaccounted for in the winter. Calendar of Romulus: December - 30 Days Calends, Nones, and Ides Unlike the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the Roman calendar had a different system for numbering the days of the month.

The months were divided into day markers that fell at the start of the month, the fifth or seventh day, and in the middle of the month. These 3 markers were called Calends, Nones and Ides. Calends (Kalendae, Kalends) signify the start of the new moon cycle and was always the first day of the month. It is derived from the Greek word καλειν, “to announce” the days of the full and new moon. Nones (Nonae) were known to be the days of the half moon which usually occur 8 days before the Ides. Ides occurred on the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. They are thought to have been the days of the full moon. Each day was referred to by how many days it fell before the Calends, Nones or Ides. For example, March 11 would be known as “Five Ides” to the Romans because it is four days before the Ides of March (March 15). Adding January and February The 304-day Roman calendar didn’t work for long because it didn’t align with the seasons.

King Numa Pompilius reformed the calendar around 700 BCE by adding the months of January (Ianuarius) and February (Februarius) to the original 10 months, which increased the year's length to 354 or 355 days. The addition of January and February meant that some of the months' names no longer agreed with their position in the calendar (September - December). The month Quintilis was renamed July in honor of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE and Sextilis was renamed August in honor of Augustus in 8 BCE. The Intercalary Month The Roman calendar was still flawed after adding January and February, as well as the days and months needed to keep the calendar in line with the seasons. Many attempts were made to align the calendar with the seasons but all failed. An extra month was added to the calendar in some years to make up for the lack of days in a year. The insertion of the intercalary month was made by the pontifex maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome.

However this system was flawed because the Roman calendar year defined the term of office of elected officials, thus a pontifex maximus could control the length of the year depending on their political agenda. When Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus, he reformed the calendar by getting rid of the intercalary months. The Julian calendar was created, then completed during his successor Augustus' reign. Roman Calendar Months History Of Our Calendar | Calendars Why does February have only 28 days? Has the year always started on 1 January? In some ways, yes. When Julius Caesar introduced his calendar in 45 B.C.E., he made 1 January the start of the year, and it was always the date on which the Solar Number and the Golden Number were incremented. However, the church didn’t like the wild parties that took place at the start of the new year, and in C.E. 567 the council of Tours declared that having the year start on 1 January was an ancient mistake that should be abolished. Through the middle ages various New Year dates were used.

If an ancient document refers to year X, it may mean any of 7 different periods in our present system: 1 Mar X to 28/29 Feb X+1 1 Jan X to 31 Dec X 1 Jan X-1 to 31 Dec X-1 25 Mar X-1 to 24 Mar X 25 Mar X to 24 Mar X+1 Saturday before Easter X to Friday before Easter X+1 25 Dec X-1 to 24 Dec X Choosing the right interpretation of a year number is difficult, so much more as one country might use different systems for religious and civil needs. The Byzantine Empire used a year starting on 1 Sep, but they didn’t count years since the birth of Christ, instead they counted years since the creation of the world which they dated to 1 September 5509 B.C.E. Since about 1600 most countries have used 1 January as the first day of the year. Italy and England, however, did not make 1 January official until around 1750.

In England (but not Scotland) three different years were used: The historical year, which started on 1 January. The liturgical year, which started on the first Sunday in advent. The civil year, which → See the British Calendar Act of 1751 . It is sometimes claimed that having the year start on 1 January was part of the Gregorian calendar reform. This is not true. This myth has probably started because in 1752 England moved the start of the year to 1 January and also changed to the Gregorian calendar. But in most other countries the two events were not related. Scotland, for example, changed to the Gregorian calendar together with England in 1752, but they moved the start of the year to 1 January in 1600. Then what about leap years? If the year started on, for example, 1 March, two months later than our present year, when was the leap day inserted? When it comes to determining if a year is a leap year, since AD 8 the Julian calendar has always had 48 months between two leap days.

So, in a country using a year starting on 1 March, 1439 would have been a leap year, because their February 1439 would correspond to February 1440 in the January-based reckoning. What is the origin of the names of the months? A lot of languages, including English, use month names based on Latin. Their meaning is listed below. However, some languages (Czech and Polish, for example) use quite different names. Month From the word decem, ten, because it was the 10th month in the old Roman calendar. How did Dionysius date Christ’s birth? There are quite a few theories about this. And many of the theories are presented as if they were indisputable historical fact. The following are two theories that tend to be more accepted: According to the Gospel of Luke (3:1 & 3:23) Jesus was "about thirty years old" shortly after "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar." Tiberius became emperor in C.E. 14. If you combine these numbers you reach a birthyear for Jesus that is strikingly close to the beginning of our year reckoning.

This may have been the basis for Dionysius’ calculations. Dionysius’ original task was to calculate an Easter table. In the Julian calendar, the dates for Easter repeat every 532 years. The first year in Dionysius’ Easter tables is C.E. 532. Is it a coincidence that the number 532 appears twice here? Or did Dionysius perhaps fix Jesus’ birthyear so that his own Easter tables would start exactly at the beginning of the second Easter cycle after Jesus’ birth? Was Jesus born in the year 0? No. There are two reasons for this: There is no year 0. Jesus was born before 4 B.C.E. The concept of a year "zero" is a modern myth (but a very popular one). In our calendar, C.E. 1 follows immediately after 1 B.C.E. with no intervening year zero. So a person who was born in 10 B.C.E. and died in C.E. 10, would have died at the age of 19, not 20.

Furthermore, as described in section 2.14, our year reckoning was established by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century. Dionysius let the year C.E. 1 start one week after what he believed to be Jesus’ birthday. But Dionysius’ calculations were wrong. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus was born under the reign of king Herod the Great, who died in 4 B.C.E.. It is likely that Jesus was actually born around 7 B.C.E.. The date of his birth is unknown; it may or may not be 25 December. Why do the 9th thru 12th months have names that mean 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th? September through December were the seventh through tenth months of a calendar used by the first Romans. Ancient historian and Greek biographer Plutarch, wrote in C.E. 75, about how they became displaced to two positions higher than their names would indicate. → Read more about the early Roman calendar. Why does February have only 28 days? January and February both date from about the time of Rome’s founding.

They were added to a calendar that had been divided into ten month-like periods whose lengths varied from 20 to 35 or more days. A winter season was not included, so those period lengths are believed to have been intended to reflect growth stages of crops and cattle. When introduced, January was given 29 days and put at the beginning of the calendar year. February was given 23 days and put at the end. Then, for an undetermined period shortly after Rome’s founding, months were said to have begun when a new moon was first sighted. At some later time, month lengths were separated from lunations and again became fixed. At that time, February’s original length was extended by five days which gave it a total of 28. Early Roman Calendar | Calendars Beware the Ides of March! Roman Fasti Some 200 fragments of Roman calendars have been found so far, and they are collectively known as Fasti. What did a Roman calendar look like? The Roman calendar used a system of months, and special days in each month. Some calendars were carved in marble or stone, but many were painted on walls for decoration.

Different geographical areas often held different gods in special esteem, and this led to regional variations in calendars. This doesn’t seem so strange when one considers that even within the US, Mardi Gras often appears only on Southern calendars, and Lincoln’s birthday sometimes does not. In 45 B.C.E., Romans modified their method of marking time to keep it in phase with seasons, but not require intercalation of an extra month. They accomplished this with the Julian Calendar. Month lengths were extended to bring the calendar’s total to 365 days, making it truly solar. This change was accompanied by addition of an extra day every fourth year (after February 23rd) because of the almost six extra hours beyond 365 days in a tropical year. How do you read the calendar? In the calendar of the ancient Romans, the months contained three primary markers  the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides. The Kalends were always the first day of the month. The Nones were usually the 5th but sometimes the 7th, and the Ides were the 15th but sometimes the 13th.

All the days after the Ides were numbered by counting down towards the next month’s Kalends. The holidays were generally bunched together to form continuous celebrations, and the remaining days of the month were usually nondescript workdays. The days were each identified with certain letters and names. The Kalends were always identified as shown in the diagram at right. The archaic form of the K, for Kalends, was used in front of the name of the month. The first letter was called the Nundinae ("nine day") , or the Nundinal letter, and it represented the market day. Every 9th day (counting inclusively) was a market day, but as it shifted every year, a designated letter between A and H would represent the market day for that year. The final letter identifies the type of day for purposes of religious observance or legal business. The top diagram shows a typical non-holiday. The first letter is the nundinal letter for the market day. If the market day for this year was E then this would be a market day. The second letter signifies the type of religious or legal observance required or permitted on this day.

In this case the letter C represents dies comitiales, days when committees of citizens could vote on political or criminal matters. The other letter designations : F stands for dies fasti, days on which legal action is permitted. N stands for dies nefasti, which meant that no legal action or public voting could take place on this day. EN stands for endotercisus, or intercisus, which were "in-between" F or C days in which mornings and afternoons had different designations. NP, the combination of N and P, represented some important type of religious observance of which all records have disappeared. However, they all seem to be directly associated with major holidays. FP also represented some religious holiday, but no definition survives for this abbreviation. The center diagram is a typical festival, or feriae. On these days the day letter follows the holiday name, which is abbreviated in these calendars. These holidays are explained in the write-up for each day. The Romans enjoyed more holidays than the number of our holidays and weekends combined. Roman taxes were also only a tithe, or 10%.

One of the hallmarks of progress seems to be that the populace is always made to work longer and, on top of it all, they are taxed more. What were the Roman weekdays? The Romans did not have weekdays in the same sense as our Monday, Tuesday, etc., however, they did have a defined markers within each month. Originally, the month and the markers were based on the moon. At the time of their early kings, Roman months were of a length identical to the lunar cycle. Each month was divided into sections that ended on the day of one of the first three phases of the moon: new, first quarter or full. All days were referred to in terms of one of these three moon phase names, Kalends, Nones or Ides. At that time a pontifex (priest) was assigned to observe the sky. When he first sighted a thin lunar crescent he called out that there was a new moon and declared the next month had started. For centuries afterward, Romans referred to the first day of each month as Kalendae or Kalends from the Latin word calare (to announce solemnly, to call out). The word calendar was derived from this custom.

Day of Kalends Of the three sections, Kalends was the longest  it had more days than the other two combined. That’s because it spanned more than two lunar phases, starting from the day after full moon and continuing thru its last quarter and waning period, then past the dark new moon until another lunar crescent was sighted. The day of Kalends itself began a new month. It was dedicated to Juno, a principal goddess of the Roman Pantheon. Unnamed days in the early Roman month were assigned a number by counting down following the day of each named phase, day by day, ending with the next of those three phases. The first numbered day in each section had the section’s highest value. Each succeeding day was one number lower than that of the day before. (Similar to the modern count-down when coordination of a group of people is required for a complicated activity such as launching a rocket.) Latin for "the evening before" is "Pridie," a word that was used to refer to the day before each of these named phases. So Pridie was always the day that would otherwise have been numbered two.

The count-down was inclusive; the day from which they started as well as that of the moon phase to which they were counting down, day one, were both included. Day of Nones Nones (Latin nonus or ninth) was originally the day when the moon reached its first quarter phase. When the pontifex initially saw the lunar crescent he noted its width and, using empirical knowledge, calculated the number of days that were expected to elapse between then and the first quarter moon. He then specified that number after he announced the new crescent. If he called out the number six, the day following Kalends would be referred to as the sixth day before Nones. In any given year, the second day of Martius might well have been designated as the sixth of the Nones of March: "ante diem VI Non. Mart." If this were the case, Nones would be the seventh day and Ides would be the 15th day of that month. The difference between these two dates, eight days, was always the length of the Ides section. Use of the word "Nones" (nine) was intended to express the inclusive number of elapsed days between first quarter and full moons.

Actually, the time between moon phases now averages about 7.4 days, but they sometimes occur eight days apart. Eight-day separations of first quarter and full moons now usually come grouped in consecutive lunations. They then give way to mostly seven-day periods. Six of the first seven lunations of 1997, for instance, had their first quarter and full moon phases eight days apart (inclusive nine-day spans). Also, July 1 of 1998 had a first-quarter moon followed by a new moon on July 9, a nine-day period. This helps explain why the unlikely term of Nones, meaning ninth, was used to designate one fourth of the moon’s period that now averages about 29.53 days. Day of Ides Ides, dedicated to Jupiter, was originally the time of the full moon. Because a full moon comes halfway thru each lunation, its day was called Idus in Latin from an Etruscan word meaning "divide." After Ides, the next new moon was expected to appear in from 15 to 17 days.

Variations in the length of time before another new moon can be sighted is due to constantly changing positions of moon and Earth relative to the sun. When did they stop using the moon for months? Romans separated their months from the lunar cycle in the fifth century B.C.E. Month lengths then became fixed. At that time, Ides was assigned as the 15th day in all months given 31 days in length  March, May, July and October. It was designated as the 13th day in all other months. As a result, from then on the Kalends section had from 16 to 19 days, the Nones section had either four or six days and the Ides section, as before, always had eight days. Sometime after Kalends, Nones and Ides were fixed on predetermined days of the month rather than being defined by phases of the moon, Romans used letters A thru H on the left side of each month’s calendar column to indicate days of their eight-day marketing week. The first day of each new year was represented by the letter "A." When did the early Roman calendar begin?

The early Roman calendar originated as a local calendar in the city of Rome, supposedly drawn up by Romulus some seven or eight centuries before the Christian Era. The year began in March and consisted of 10 months, six of 30 days and four of 31 days, making a total of 304 days: it ended in December, to be followed by what seems to have been an uncounted winter gap. Numa Pompilius, according to tradition the second king of Rome (715?-673? B.C.E.), is supposed to have added two extra months, January and February, to fill the gap and to have increased the total number of days by 50, making 354. To obtain sufficient days for his new months, he is then said to have deducted one day from the 30-day months, thus having 56 days to divide between January and February. But since the Romans had, or had developed, a superstitious dread of even numbers, January was given an extra day; February was still left with an even number of days, but as that month was given over to the infernal gods, this was considered appropriate.

The system allowed the year of 12 months to have 355 days, an uneven number. When did the Roman republican calendar begin? The so-called Roman republican calendar was supposedly introduced by the Etruscan Tarquinius Priscus (616-579 B.C.E.), according to tradition the fifth king of Rome. The Roman republican calendar was a dating system that evolved in Rome prior to the Christian era. According to legend, Romulus, the founder of Rome, instituted the calendar in about 738 B.C.E. This dating system, however, was probably a product of evolution from the Greek lunar calendar, which in turn was derived from the Babylonian. The original Roman calendar appears to have consisted only of 10 months and of a year of 304 days. The remaining 61¼ days were apparently ignored, resulting in a gap during the winter season. The months bore the names Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Juniius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and Decemberthe last six names correspond to the Latin words for the numbers 5 through 10.

The Roman ruler Numa Pompilius is credited with adding January at the beginning and February at the end of the calendar to create the 12-month year. In 452 B.C.E., February was moved between January and March. By the 1st century B.C.E., the Roman calendar had become hopelessly confused. The year, based on cycles and phases of the moon, totaled 355 days, about 10¼ days shorter than the solar year. The occasional intercalation of an extra month of 27 or 28 days, called Mercedonius, kept the calendar in step with the seasons. The confusion was compounded by political maneuvers. The Pontifex Maximus and the College of Pontiffs had the authority to alter the calendar, and they sometimes did so to reduce or extend the term of a particular magistrate or other public official. Finally, in 46 B.C.E., Julius Caesar initiated a thorough reform that resulted in the establishment of a new dating system, the Julian calendar.

He wanted the year to begin in January since it contained the festival of the god of gates (later the god of all beginnings), but expulsion of the Etruscan dynasty in 510 B.C.E. led to this particular reform’s being dropped. The Roman republican calendar still contained only 355 days, with February having 28 days; March, May, July, and October 31 days each; January, April, June, August, September, November, and December 29 days. It was basically a lunar calendar and short by 10¼ days of a 365¼ -day tropical year. In order to prevent it from becoming too far out of step with the seasons, an intercalary month, Intercalans, or Mercedonius (from merces, meaning wages, since workers were paid at this time of year), was inserted between February 23 and 24. It consisted of 27 or 28 days, added once every two years, and in historical times at least, the remaining five days of February were omitted.

The intercalation was therefore equivalent to an additional 22 or 23 days, so that in a four-year period the total days in the calendar amounted to (4 x 355) + 22 + 23, or 1,465: this gave an average of 366.25 days per year. Intercalation was the duty of the Pontifices, a board that assisted the chief magistrate in his sacrificial functions. The reasons for their decisions were kept secret, but, because of some negligence and a measure of ignorance and corruption, the intercalations were irregular, and seasonal chaos resulted. In spite of this and the fact that it was over a day too long compared with the tropical year, much of the modified Roman republican calendar was carried over into the Gregorian calendar now in general use. What were the Roman months? Much of the knowledge we now have about early Roman calendars came from Ovid, a Roman born in 43 B.C.E., and from Plutarch, a Greek biographer who wrote between C.E. 105 and 115. Both of them had access to historical documents that are no longer extant.

Ovid claimed that his information was "dug up in archaic calendars," so it was already ancient over two thousand years ago. We can assume that the Roman calendar was brought from their birthplace by Rome’s original citizens. Initially, it contained only ten months. It has been suggested that those month lengths reflected growth cycles of crops and cattle. When compared with the solar year, it had an uncounted winter period of approximately sixty days. Plutarch said that months at the time of Rome’s founding were of varying lengths, some as short as twenty days and others with thirty-five or more in what early Romans believed was a year of three hundred and sixty days. Romulus, the legendary first king, was said to have made extensive changes to those month lengths, assigning twenty-nine days to some and thirty-one to others. → Read excerpt of Plutarch’s essay . March (the first month) Both Ovid and Plutarch said that Martius, originally the first month, was named after Mars, the Roman god of war.

Six of the other original ten were simply numbered as Quintilis thru Decembris (fifth thru tenth) but there were already disagreements when Ovid wrote, two thousand years ago, as to the sources of names for what were originally the second thru fourth, Aprilis, Maius and Junius. These disagreements continue to the present time. April When writing about April, Ovid said "I have come to the fourth month, full of honor for you; Venus, you know both the poet and the month are yours." It was later said that "April was sacred to Venus, and her festival  the Festum Veneris and Fortuna Virilis  occurred on the first day of this month." Apparently Aprilis stems from aphrilis, corrupted from Aphrodite, a Greek name for Venus.

Jakob Grimm, a later authority, opposed this stating it may have originated from the name of a god or hero named Aper or Aprus." May Maius was said by some to be named after the goddess Maia, a daughter of Atlas, and Junius "is indirectly named after the goddess Juno, the Roman equivalent of Frigga." But Ovid suggested that names of months we now call May and June possibly refer not to sky-gods but rather to elders and young men. January (at the end of the year) There was also disagreement in Ovid’s day as to the sequence and time at which Januarius and Februarius were added to the original ten months. Januarius became part of the calendar within half a century after Rome was founded because Plutarch said that Numa, the king who followed Romulus, made it the first month of the year and made February the last. One historian assigns that action an exact date by stating that "January and February were added to an original Roman calendar of only ten months in 713 B.C.E." January was named after Janus, a sky-god who was ancient even at the time of Rome’s founding.

Ovid quoted Janus as saying "The ancients called me chaos, for a being from of old am I." After describing the world’s creation, he again quoted Janus: "It was then that I, till that time a mere ball, a shapeless lump, assumed the face and members of a god." A Lydian named Joannes identified Janus as a planet when he wrote: "Our own Philadelphia still preserves a trace of the ancient belief. On the first day of the month there goes in procession no less a personage than Janus himself, dressed up in a two-faced mask, and people call him Saturnus, identifying him with Kronos." Early Romans believed that the beginning of each day, month and year were sacred to Janus. They thought he opened the gates of heaven at dawn to let out the morning, and that he closed them at dusk. This eventually led to his worship as the god of all doors, gates, and entrances. Some say Februarius got its name from a goatskin thong called a februa ("means of purification.") On the 15th day of this month Romans observed the festival of Lupercalia.

During the festival, a februa was wielded by priests who used it to beat women in the belief that it would make a barren woman fertile. However, there’s a Latin verb februare, meaning to "expiate" or "purify." It seems more reasonable to assume the purification people had in mind when naming the month was that of the calendar year’s length, not that of women upon whom the thong was applied. Februrary (at the end of the year) Apparently Februarius, when adopted, had but 23 days  traditionally the 23rd day of that month was the end of the calendar year. That indicates Februarius was observed in pre-Romulan times when months had as few as twenty days. Also, adding five days at year-end (to extend February’s length to 28) is similar to the change made by many other peoples who, around the time of Rome’s founding, added five days to their own calendar, but considered them to be unlucky and not part of the normal year. Why is our leap day in Februrary, not the end of the year?

Romans always reconciled differences between calendar and solar year lengths during the "Month of Purification." Whenever and however Roman calendars were modified to correspond to year length, it was always done after the 23rd day of February, traditionally the last day of the year. Even in our time, leap year is observed with a 29-day February. To purists, "leap day" is February 24, not the 29th. Plutarch wrote: "Numa...added an intercalary month, to follow February, consisting of twenty-two days, and called by the Romans the month Mercedinus. This amendment, however, itself, in course of time, came to need other amendments." (When observed, that leap month always immediately followed February 23.) According to historian Livy, Numa divided the year into twelve months, corresponding to the moon’s revolutions.

But as the moon does not complete thirty days in each month, and so there are fewer days in the lunar year than in that measured by the course of the sun, he interpolated intercalary months and so arranged them that every twentieth year the days should coincide with the same position of the sun as when they started, the whole twenty years being thus complete. He also established a distinction between the days on which legal business could be transacted and those on which it could not, because it would sometimes be advisable that there should be no business transacted with the people. Others claim that it wasn’t until 452 B.C.E. that a month named Intercalaris was added to the Roman calendar in order to add those days required to bring calendar length back into phase with the solar year. This month also began after the 23rd day of Februarius. It was observed every second year and was said to have had a length of either 22 or 23 days, with the remaining five days of Februarius added after them. Beware the Ides of March! SOOTHSAYER. He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass. [Sennet.

Exeunt all but BRUTUS and CASSIUS.] If you’ve heard the warning, "Beware the Ides of March," then it’s probably due to the works of William Shakespeare. The Roman ruler, Julius Caesar, was assassinated on the Ides of March - March 15, 44 B.C.E. In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, (I, ii, 33), a soothsayer tells Caesar who is already on his way to the Senate (and his death), "Beware the Ides of March." Caesar asks him to come closer and repeat what he has just said. He studies the man’s face, listens to the warning again, but decIdes, "He is a dreamer, let us leave him. Pass." There is irony here, because the audience knows (from history) that Caesar will be killed on the Ides, and that he is exercising poor judgement in dismissing this prophecy.

Later, when he meets the Soothsayer again on the way to the Senate, he confidently says to him, "The Ides of March have come." But the Soothsayer reminds him, "Ay, Caesar, but not gone." There will be other warnings to Caesar from different people, which he will ignore, and go off to meet his death. The phrase "Beware the Ides of March" is one of the most remembered lines of Shakespeare’s plays. The unidentified soothsayer from Shakespeare’s play may have been a Roman astrologer by the name of Spurinna. According to to historical writer C.J.S. Thompson (and confirmed in Plutarch’s account of the story written in 75 C.E.) it was reportedly sometime prior to the fateful day of March 15 that Spurinna had first given Caesar the famous warning to "beware of the Ides of March." The astrologer, Spurinna, had previously warned Caesar that on the Ides of March, he would be in great danger. If, however, Julius Caesar took care on that one day - then all would be well.

According to Plutarch, Caesar had previously made the wise decision to stay within the safety of his bedroom chambers on the 15th of March. However, Caesar’s "friend" Decimus (Albinus) Brutus (not Marcus Brutus) managed to convince him that the astrologer’s warnings were nothing more than superstitious foolishness. So Julius Caesar decided to attend the Senate on the 15th of March. On his way to the Senate, Caesar "accidentally" met up with the astrologer, Spurinna. Caesar then told the astrologer "The Ides of March are come." Spurinna answered, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past." Later that day - on March 15, 44 B.C.E - Caesar’s enemies assassinated him in the Pompey theater, at the foot of Pompey’s statue, where the Roman Senate was meeting that day in the temple of Venus. The Roman calendar The Roman calendar (Please include the word “calendar” in the subject line) The Roman calendar What is the Roman calendar? The Roman calendar provides the historical background for the Christian calendar.

To a large extent the structure the calendar we use today is similar to the structure of the ancient Roman calendar. Before 45 BC, the Roman calendar was a mess, and much of our so-called “knowledge” about it seems to be little more than guesswork. Originally, the year started on 1 March and consisted of only 304 days or 10 months (Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December). These 304 days were followed by an unnamed and unnumbered winter period. The Roman king Numa Pompilius (c. 715-673 BC, although his historicity is disputed) allegedly introduced February and January (in that order) between December and March, increasing the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. In 450 BC, February was moved to its current position between January and March.

In order to make up for the lack of days in a year, an extra month, Intercalaris or Mercedonius, (allegedly with 22 or 23 days though some authorities dispute this) was introduced in some years. In an 8 year period the length of the years were: 1: 12 months or 355 days 8: 13 months or 378 days A total of 2930 days corresponding to an average of 366¼ days per year. This year was discovered to be too long, and therefore 7 days were later dropped from the 8th year, yielding 365.375 days per year. This is all theory. In practice it was the duty of the priesthood to keep track of the calendars, but they failed miserably, partly due to ignorance, partly because they were bribed to make certain years long and other years short. Furthermore, leap years were considered unlucky and were therefore avoided in time of crisis, such as the Second Punic War. In order to clean up this mess, a calendar reform was required.

In 45 BC Julius Caesar introduced the so-called Julian calendar , but before the reformed calendar could be used, drastic measures were required to make up for the many omitted leap months. Therefore 46 BC became a year with 15 months and 445 days; that year has been aptly termed “the last year of confusion”. The table below shows an educated guess about the length of the months in the years 47 BC (which was a typical Roman year) and 46 BC (which was anything but typical). 47 BC 355 445 The names of the two extra months between November and December are not known. It has been suggested that their names were Undecember and Duodecember, but that is doubtful, as this would mean that the names of the last four months were derived from the Latin words for nine, eleven, twelve, ten – in that order. The length of the months from 45 BC onward were the same as the ones we know today.

Occasionally one reads the following story: “Julius Caesar made all odd numbered months 31 days long, and all even numbered months 30 days long (with February having 29 days in non-leap years). In 44 BC Quintilis was renamed ‘Julius’ (July) in honour of Julius Caesar, and in 8 BC Sextilis became ‘Augustus’ in honour of emperor Augustus. When Augustus had a month named after him, he wanted his month to be a full 31 days long, so he removed a day from February and shifted the length of the other months so that August would have 31 days.” This story, however, has no basis in actual fact. It is a fabrication, possibly invented by the English-French scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco in the 13th century. [1] The Romans didn’t number the days sequentially from 1. Instead they had three fixed points in each month: “Kalendae” (or “Calendae”), which was the first day of the month.

“Idus”, which was the 13th day of January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December, or the 15th day of March, May, July, or October. “Nonae”, which was the 9th day before Idus (counting Idus itself as the 1st day). The days between Kalendae and Nonae were called “the 5th day before Nonae”, “the 4th day before Nonae”, “the 3rd day before Nonae”, and “the day before Nonae”. (There was no “2nd day before Nonae”. This was because of the inclusive way of counting used by the Romans: To them, Nonae itself was the first day, and thus “the 2nd day before” and “the day before” would mean the same thing.) Similarly, the days between Nonae and Idus were called “the Xth day before Idus”, and the days after Idus were called “the Xth day before Kalendae (of the next month)”. Julius Caesar decreed that in leap years the “6th day before Kalendae of March” should be doubled.

So in contrast to our present system, in which we introduce an extra date (29 February), the Romans had the same date twice in leap years. The doubling of the 6th day before Kalendae of March is the origin of the word bissextile.

If we create a list of equivalences between the Roman days and our current days of February in a leap year, we get the following: Roman date Names of the Months Origin of the Names of the Months January: Janus, Roman god of doors, beginnings, sunset and sunrise, had one face looking forward and one backward, February: On February 15 the Romans celebrated the festival of forgiveness for sins; (februare, Latin to purify), March: Mars, the Roman god of war, April: Roman month Aprilis, perhaps derived from aperire, (Latin to open, as in opening buds and blossoms) or perhaps from Aphrodite, original Greek name of Venus, May: Maia, Roman goddess, mother of Mercury by Jupiter and daughter of Atlas, June: Juno, chief Roman goddess, July: Renamed for Julius Caesar in 44 BC, who was born this month; Quintilis, Latin for fifth month, was the former name (the Roman year began in March rather than January), August: Formerly Sextilis (sixth month in the Roman calendar); re-named in 8 BC for Augustus Caesar, September: September, (septem, Latin for 7) the

 seventh month in the Julian or Roman calendar, established in the reign of Julius Caesar, October: Eighth month (octo, Latin for 8) in the Julian (Roman) calendar.

The Gregorian calendar instituted by Pope Gregory XIII established January as the first month of the year, November: Ninth Roman month (novem, Latin for 9). Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, skipping 10 days that October, correcting for too many leap years, December: Julian (Roman) year's tenth month (decem, Latin for 10). The Roman Calendar Home > Calendar > The Roman Calendar The Roman Calendar ©iStockphoto.com/matthewleesdixon The Roman or “pre-Julian” calendar was created during the founding of Rome and is believed to have been a lunar calendar. The calendar originally consisted of hollow months that were 29 days long or full months that had a length of 30 days. King Romulus The original Roman calendar was said to be invented by Romulus, the first king of Rome around 753 BCE. The calendar started the year in March (Martius) and consisted of a total of ten months, with six months of 30 days and four months with a length of 31 days.

The winter season was not assigned to any month, thus the calendar year only lasted 304 days with 61 days unaccounted for in the winter. Calendar of Romulus: Chinese calendar Unlike the Julian and Gregorian calendar , the Roman calendar had a different system for numbering the days of the month. The months were divided into day markers that fell at the beginning of the month, the fifth or seventh day and in the middle of the month. These three markers were called calends, nones and ides. Calends (Kalendae, Kalends) signify the start of the new moon cycle and was always the first day of the month. It is derived from the Greek word καλειν, “to announce” the days of the full and new moon. Nones (Nonae) were known to be the day of the half moon which usually occurs eight days before the ides. Ides occur on the thirteenth day in eight of the months but on the fifteenth day in March, May July, and October. They are thought to have been the day of the full moon. Each day was referred to by how many days it fell before the calends, nones or ides.

For example, 11 March would be known as “Five ides” to the Romans because it is four days before the ides of March (15 March). Adding January and February The 304-day Roman calendar didn’t work for long because it didn’t align with the seasons. King Numa Pompilius reformed the calendar around 700 BCE by adding the months of January (Ianuarius) and February (Februarius) to the original ten months, which increased the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. The addition of January and February meant that some of the names of the months no longer agreed with their position in the calendar (September - December). The month Quintilis was renamed July in honor of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE and Sextilis was renamed August in honor of Augustus in 8 BCE. The Intercalary Month The calendar was still flawed after the addition of January and February and needed days and months intercalated to keep it in line with the seasons. Several attempts were made to align the calendar with the seasons but all failed.

An extra month was added to the calendar in some years to make up for the lack of days in a year. The insertion of the intercalary month was made by the pontifex maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. However this system was flawed because the Roman calendar year defined the term of office of elected officials, thus a pontifex maximus could control the length of the year depending on their political agenda. When Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus, he reformed the calendar that eliminated the use of intercalary months which resulted in the Julian calendar and was completed during the reign of his successor Augustus. Roman calendar Months and Lengths Common Year The Roman calendar The Roman calendar The Colosseum in Rome is one of the most famous Roman ruins. ©iStockphoto.com/matthewleesdixon The Roman or “pre-Julian” calendar was created during the founding of Rome and is believed to have been a lunar calendar. The calendar originally consisted of hollow months that were 29 days long or full months that had 30 days.

King Romulus The original Roman calendar was said to be invented by Romulus, the first king of Rome, at around 753 BCE (Before Common Era). The calendar started the year in March (Martius) and consisted of 10 months, with 6 months of 30 days and 4 months of 31 days. The winter season was not assigned to any month, so the calendar year only lasted 304 days with 61 days unaccounted for in the winter. Calendar of Romulus: Chinese calendar Unlike the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the Roman calendar had a different system for numbering the days of the month. The months were divided into day markers that fell at the start of the month, the fifth or seventh day, and in the middle of the month. These 3 markers were called Calends, Nones and Ides. Calends (Kalendae, Kalends) signify the start of the new moon cycle and was always the first day of the month. It is derived from the Greek word καλειν, “to announce” the days of the full and new moon.

Nones (Nonae) were known to be the days of the half moon which usually occur 8 days before the Ides. Ides occurred on the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. They are thought to have been the days of the full moon. Each day was referred to by how many days it fell before the Calends, Nones or Ides. For example, March 11 would be known as “Five Ides” to the Romans because it is four days before the Ides of March (March 15). Adding January and February The 304-day Roman calendar didn’t work for long because it didn’t align with the seasons. King Numa Pompilius reformed the calendar around 700 BCE by adding the months of January (Ianuarius) and February (Februarius) to the original 10 months, which increased the year's length to 354 or 355 days. The addition of January and February meant that some of the months' names no longer agreed with their position in the calendar (September - December).

The month Quintilis was renamed July in honor of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE and Sextilis was renamed August in honor of Augustus in 8 BCE. The intercalary month The Roman calendar was still flawed after adding January and February, as well as the days and months needed to keep the calendar in line with the seasons. Many attempts were made to align the calendar with the seasons but all failed. An extra month was added to the calendar in some years to make up for the lack of days in a year. The insertion of the intercalary month was made by the pontifex maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. However this system was flawed because the Roman calendar year defined the term of office of elected officials, thus a pontifex maximus could control the length of the year depending on their political agenda. When Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus, he reformed the calendar by getting rid of the intercalary months. The Julian calendar was created, then completed during his successor Augustus' reign. Roman calendar months and lengths Common Year CALENDAR CALENDAR BACK FYI NEXT CALENDAR 1. A system of reckoning time divisions, esp.

in years, months, weeks, and days. 2. A table showing such divisions usually for a year. The day and the year are based on solar (sun) time. Due to a slight inaccuracy in the Julian Calendar, the Gregorian Calendar was adopted and became universal as a measure of civil time. The Julian calendar is referred to as Old Style (O.S.) and the Gregorian as New Style (N.S.). One day = the length of time it takes the earth to make one complete revolution on its own axis. One month = originally the time it takes the moon to complete all of its phases but has been changed so that each month falls during the same season every year. One year = the approximate time it takes the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun. Leap year = a year having 366 days with February 29 as the extra day. The God of Israel gave a name only to the 7th day of the week, which he calls the Sabbath Day (the Day of Rest); the other days he numbered. (Ex. 20:11, Deut.

5:12-14) Man gave names to the days of the week, and the months of the year, which they named after Pagan deities. The deities of the week are equivalent to the Sun, Moon and 5 major planets. The months of the year are named after the pagan gods of Rome, Greece, Ireland and other European nations. The word �Pagan� means a heathen, one who is not a Christian, Moslem, or Jew. Pagan and heathen are both applied to nonmonotheistic (those who believe in many gods) peoples. Pagan specifically refers to one of the ancient polytheistic peoples especially the Greeks and the Romans. Heathen is also applied to any of the peoples regarded as primitive idolaters. *Below are charts of the Biblical and Gregorian days of the week and the months of the year: Day #/Name THE GOD OF ISRAEL'S Days of the Week GREGORIAN CALENDAR Exodus 12 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, 2. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Exodus 13 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 3. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. 4. This day came ye out in the month Abib. 1 Kings 6 1. And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. Esther 8 9.

Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. Jeremiah 39 2. In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. Numbers 33 38. And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the Lord, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month. Nehemiah 6 15.

So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days. 1 Kings 8 1. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. 2. And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. I Kings 6 38. And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. Nehemiah 1 1. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, Ezra 10 9. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days.

It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain. Esther 2 16. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. Zechariah 1 7. Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, Esther 3 13. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. *Pagan Month's and the deities they are named after: Aphrodite A Greek goddess (the Roman Venus).

The Anglo-Saxon name for this month is Eastermonath, the month of the goddess Eostre, whose name is the origin of the word Easter. April is named in honor of her. Maia May is named after the Greek goddess of spring. Juno A Roman goddess (the Greek Hera). Her chief attribute is ascribed to as the queen of heaven and as a divine watcher over the female sex. Because of this the month of June is held most favorable for getting married. Julius Caesar July is named after Emperor Julius Caesar in commemoration of his work on the Julian Calendar. Augustus Caesar August is named after the first Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. Pomona September (the 7th month of the old Roman calendar) is named after the Roman goddess of fruit and fruit bearing trees. Astraea October (the 8th month of the old Roman calendar) is named after this Greek goddess. Samhain November (the 9th month of the old Roman calendar) is the first month of the winter quarter and gets its name from the festival of Samhain/All Saints.

Decima/Vesta December (the 10th month of the old Roman calendar) is named after the middle goddess of the Three Fates, Decima (the Greek Vesta), she who personifies the present. Janus The two-faced Roman god of endings and beginnings. The New Year is celebrated in the month of January. Februa The Roman goddess of passion and love. Her orgiastic rites are celebrated on the 14th of February, St.Valentine�s Day. The God of Israel , Jesus Christ is the True and Living God. Jesus and the Father are the members of the Godhead . There are no other gods! The so-called gods of Paganism are man-made and are not real. Please read what the Word (Jesus Christ) has spoken: Acts 4: 10. Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12.

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Isaiah 48: 11. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. 12. Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 13. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. Exodus 34: 14. For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Exodus 20: 5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. I Chronicles 16: 23. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation. 24. Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations. 25. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods. 26. For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. I Chronicles 29: 10. Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. 11. Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.

References: The King James Version of the Holy Bible *The Pagan Book of Days by Nigel Pennick, Destiny Books New Standard Encyclopedia, Vol. 3 PEACE IN JESUS NAME!

Question: Which month in the Gregorian calendar was originally the seventh month of the Roman calendar?
Answer: September